When God Calls

First Sunday after Pentecost

Welcome to this second Sunday after Pentecost. We are in the season also known as Ordinary Time. It could also be called ordered time until the new church year begins again in Advent. This is the season of the Church whose life began at Pentecost over 2000 years ago. This body has been evolving ever since. This particular body known as Bethel Church is old but not that old. Each of us here has been called to this gathering this morning to hear a new word from God, to be together with others who love God and love one another. Let us worship God.

May the peace of God’s Spirit be with you.

Reading from the Hebrew Scriptures – 1 Samuel 3:1-10                                                                                                                                                    

3 Meanwhile, the boy Samuel served the Lord by assisting Eli. Now in those days messages from the Lord were very rare, and visions were quite uncommon.

2 One night Eli, who was almost blind by now, had gone to bed. 3 The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was sleeping in the Tabernacle near the Ark of God. 4 Suddenly the Lord called out, “Samuel!”

“Yes?” Samuel replied. “What is it?” 5 He got up and ran to Eli. “Here I am. Did you call me?”

“I didn’t call you,” Eli replied. “Go back to bed.” So he did.

6 Then the Lord called out again, “Samuel!”

Again Samuel got up and went to Eli. “Here I am. Did you call me?”

“I didn’t call you, my son,” Eli said. “Go back to bed.”

7 Samuel did not yet know the Lord because he had never had a message from the Lord before. 8 So the Lord called a third time, and once more Samuel got up and went to Eli. “Here I am. Did you call me?”

Then Eli realized it was the Lord who was calling the boy. 9 So he said to Samuel, “Go and lie down again, and if someone calls again, say, ‘Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went back to bed.

10 And the Lord came and called as before, “Samuel! Samuel!”

And Samuel replied, “Speak, your servant is listening.”

Moment of Silence

Listen to the voice of the Spirit speaking to the Church. Thanks be to Go                                                                                       

Message                                                                                                                                                                

Last week we talked about a couple of call passages. One from Isaiah who found himself in the presence of God who asked who would go for them, and Isaiah answered, “Here I am. I’ll go.” Then we heard from John’s Gospel the story of Nicodemus who goes to see Jesus at night and is invited to be born from above, to be changed from the inside out.

This week we hear this delightful story of young Samuel who is serving at the Tabernacle, the tent that housed the ark that held the stone tablets with the 10 commandments. There was no Temple yet, so the Tabernacle, which had traveled with the Israelites through the wilderness, was still the central place for worship. The Tabernacle and ark ended up in Shiloh after the Israelites conquered the land that had been promised to them. Eli was the priest who lived there when Samuel was dedicated to God by his mother Hannah, who had prayed for a child and promised to give him back to God if her prayers were answered. 

Samuel was still just a young boy when this story happened. A young boy who had not heard the voice of the Lord, even though he had been serving in the Tabernacle. Even though he actually slept very near the ark of the covenant, which later would be placed in the holy of holies, the inner sanctum of the Temple when it was eventually built by Solomon.

To be fair, it sounds like Eli hadn’t heard God’s voice for awhile either.

So when Samuel hears this voice calling his name in the middle of the night, he can only think one thing – Eli is calling him and he better go find out what he wants. And it doesn’t happen just once. It takes three times of Samuel going in to Eli and Eli telling him it wasn’t he who had called him, before finally, finally Eli figures out it must be God calling Samuel.  

That must have been difficult for Eli. Samuel was just a boy, no one really. Eli was the priest, the one who had heard from God in the past, the one you might expect to hear God’s voice again. But he didn’t get angry. He didn’t react negatively at all. He simply sent Samuel back to listen for God’s voice again and told him what to say.  

This calling of Samuel marks the beginning of a new era for Israel. John Rollefson described Samuel as a triple threat. He was a judge, a prophet, and also trained as a priest. He would replace Eli and go on to anoint Israel’s first and second kings – Saul and David, also Israel’s most famous king.

It isn’t the first time God has done the unexpected, has called someone of relative obscurity, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last. Think of Jacob who stole his brother’s birthright then flees from his twin Esau’s anger and then sees a ladder leading up to heaven. Think of Moses who killed a man and hid out in the desert until he sees a bush burning but not being consumed and hears a voice telling him to take off his sandals. Think of David who’s the littlest brother whose out in the fields tending the smelly sheep and is anointed as the king of Israel. Think of Mary who is from a poor backwater family and is barely old enough to marry, when the angel Gabriel comes to her and says she will bear God’s son. Think of the fishermen and tax collectors and all manner of riff raff Jesus called to follow him.

God does unexpected things with unexpected people all the time. Not just did, but does. God is still doing this. We could probably add, in unexpected ways and in unexpected times. 

What has God called you to be or to do? You know, a calling doesn’t have to be to the pastorate or the mission field (though one could argue the mission field is all around us, so…). The quote on the front of the worship folder is one of my favorites of Frederick Buechner:

The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.

So, tell me – to what have you been called? It’s not necessarily your job, but it might be. You may still be figuring it out, especially if you’re still in school or just out of school. (And if you’re still figuring it out, I recommend keeping this quote handy. If you’re interested, Buechner explains what he means a little more and I would be happy to share that with you) If you do know to what you are called or were called, how would you answer?  

When I thought about today’s scripture and about this little community of faith, I thought, there are a lot of parallels here. We’re sort of this obscure, little struggling congregation. Like Samuel, no one probably expects much of us. We exist in a time of unrest, a time of great change, a time when God’s voice has gotten lost, just like Samuel’s time. The Church (with a capital C) seems to have lost its way, not unlike Eli whose sons were out of control and whose spiritual leadership left much to be desired and who soon learns his leadership days are over.  

Perhaps, like Samuel, we need to find our sacred space and listen for God’s voice. Perhaps, like Samuel, we need to be ready to say, “Speak to us, Lord, for your servants are listening.” Perhaps, like Eli, we need to recognize that change is in the air. Perhaps we need to look around our world and listen for God’s voice in the voices of those who are suffering, those who are in need, those who are longing for connection, for love.

What might God be calling us to do or to be? God is calling us to a place where our deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger collide. The world’s deep hunger is all around us. We need only discover how our deep gladness – be the love – can meet that deep hunger.

Listen….do you hear God calling?

Pray with me…

Be silent with me for a moment. Calm your thoughts. Feel your heart. Breathe. …God, let us hear your voice. Help us to listen. Call us to that place where gladness and need meet, we pray. Amen. 

Invitation to Find Our Calling                                                                                                                      

To what are we being called? To what are you being called? Two different questions, but perhaps the answers run on parallel lines. We, as a community, are being called by God to become something new. We each are also being called, as people who make up this community, to find how we can be a part of this vocation. We each also have our own vocation, just as we each have gifts God has given us – because we each have gifts God has given us. And those gifts also contribute to this body, which we also call the church. Our challenge is to listen, and then to do or to be what God’s voice tells us to do or be. Amen. 

Benediction                                                                                                                                                        

Lord God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us: through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.